Setting up from scratch, Tung Wah College is on the hunt for experienced teaching and management staff.

"We are looking for heads and directors. We are trying to get the leaders in first. They will set up the structure and recruit their own staff," says president Thomas Wong, who has been working on the preparations for the past 18 months.

Wong concedes that being self-financed means professors and senior support staff in human resources, finance and administration will have to think out of the box to meet financial goals. "They will have to work hard, embrace change and face challenges to find the most cost-effective ways to set up the departments. We will not be specialised - we need multitasking and multiskilled staff. We will have to continuously improve [operations]."

The most important task is to find people who are happy to give and nurture students, he adds.

The college is also recruiting academic staff for the departments of accounting and finance, management and marketing, social sciences and health services. Language experts are also needed for teaching English, Chinese and translation.

"They will have to spend time nurturing students, with 70 per cent of their time allocated for teaching. Some experience in tertiary education is needed," Wong says.

Tung Wah will offer degree programmes and start off with taking 200 first year students, but there will be a total of 2,700 places in the future.